


Billet-doux

by cutsycat



Series: Dictionary.Com Word of the Day Drabbles [654]
Category: NCIS
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-02
Updated: 2017-05-02
Packaged: 2018-10-26 22:53:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10796415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cutsycat/pseuds/cutsycat
Summary: Gibbs gets a shock when he finds a letter on Tony's desk. Not wanting a repeat of the plague incident he takes the letter to Abby. Things only derail further from there, leaving everyone reeling.





	Billet-doux

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Red_Pink_Dots](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Red_Pink_Dots/gifts).
  * In response to a prompt by [Red_Pink_Dots](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Red_Pink_Dots/pseuds/Red_Pink_Dots) in the [NCIS_Prompts_2017](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/NCIS_Prompts_2017) collection. 



> Another dictionary.com word of the day drabble. This time from 02/14/2001 for the word [billet-doux](http://www.dictionary.com/wordoftheday/2001/02/14/billet-doux).
> 
> billet-doux  
> A love letter.
> 
> This is a bonus one shot/drabble(not one of the three I normally post) for Red_Pink_Dots who prompted me through [here](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/NCIS_Prompts_2017/profile). She requested Anthony DiNozzo/Jethro Gibbs/Timothy McGee. I'm not sure this qualifies, but I tried. I hope she likes it.
> 
> **Prompt:**
> 
> Contre-coup:  
> against the blow; repercussion of a physical or mental shock, or an indirect consequence of an event.
> 
> Pairing among the NCIS team, author's choice
> 
> **End Prompt**
> 
> As always comments, kudos, and constructive criticism are greatly appreciated. 
> 
> Prompts are open. More information is available at the end of the work if you want to prompt me yourself.

# 

Billet-doux

Gibbs spotted the note on Tony's desk first. Remembering the last letter sent to Tony and it's horrific consequences, Gibbs immediately snatched this one up and took it down to Abby to be opened safely. Abby opened it and no substances appeared, so Gibbs breathed a sigh of relief. That was until Abby gasped.

“It can't be.” Abby clutched at her heart like it had been broken.

“What is it, Abbs?” Gibbs demanded. 

“The note. Look at the note.” Abby pointed with shaking fingers.

Gibbs quickly read the note and reeled like from a contrecoup blow. He couldn’t believe what he was reading. Tony was planning on leaving NCIS. 

He'd written up his resignation letter. He'd even personalized it for Gibbs with a plaintive, “What did I do to deserve the constant putdowns and undermining of my authority?” at the end of his letter for Gibbs. This envelope didn't have a letter for Vance, but Gibbs assumed Tony had written one.

Gibbs quickly grabbed the note and put it back in the envelope. He'd return it to where he found it, but only after he'd worked out his own response letter to place with it. Still this was something only he could take care of. No need for Abby to worry about it. “I'll take care of it, Abbs.”

“You better.” Abby shook her finger at Gibbs.

Gibbs tucked Tony’s resignation letter into his gear to take home with him tonight. He hoped Tony wouldn’t miss it in the meantime. He didn’t know what he’d do if Tony asked about the envelope. Fortunately, he didn’t have to find out. 

Once home for the day, he started writing his own letter in response to Tony’s resignation letter knowing that he’d never be able to get out everything he wanted to say if he tried to say it face to face instead of in the letter. He'd always been better at expressing his feelings through letters. It had been one of the main reasons his relationship with Shannon had worked so well.

He'd write her as often as he could while he was deployed. All his feelings would be poured into each letter. This letter would be no different. Tony had had some important points in his resignation letter and if Gibbs wanted to salvage anything especially keeping Tony as his SFA, he'd have to address them all.

Meanwhile at Tim's apartment, Abby was ringing her hands. She needed to share the news of Tony's resignation, but she couldn't figure out how to break the news to Tim. She knew Tim cared event more about Tony than she did. 

“Just spit it out, Abby.” McGee grumbled after waiting for her to speak for a good ten minutes after she'd shown up at his door.

Abby burst into tears. “It's terrible Timmy. I don't know what we're going to do.”

Tim wrapped his arms around Abby. “I can't help if I don't know what you're talking about. Why don't you start from the beginning.” McGee murmured.

“Gibbs brought me an envelope. We opened it and found a resignation letter Tony had written to Gibbs. What are we going to do Timmy? We can’t afford to lose Tony.” Abby babbled.

“Calm down, Abby.” Tim soothed, rubbing his hand up and down her back. “If Gibbs doesn’t fix this, I will.”

Abby looked at Tim with wide eyes, hope starting to fill them, “You will?”

“I will.” Tim agreed. He already had a plan for how to make things better, so that Tony didn’t leave. Unbeknownst to Abby he had more invested in keeping Tony around than she realized. 

Once Abby stopped crying and settled down, Tim sent her back to her home and started putting his plan into motion. 

Gibbs breathed a sigh of relief when he beat everyone else in. This way there would be no witnesses to him returning Tony’s resignation letter complete with his response which had turned more into a billet-doux than a response to everything Tony brought up much to Gibbs’ surprise. He then went and grabbed himself some coffee while he waited for the rest of the MCRT to show up.

By the time Tony came in, he had not only his original resignation letter, the letter Gibbs had left, but an additional letter on top of it. Confused, Tony picked up the letters and had Abby scan them without opening them. She didn’t find anything dangerous, so Tony shrugged and took them back up to his desk. 

“Whatcha got there, Tony?” Tim probed.

“None of your business, Probie.” Tony quickly slipped all the letters into his backpack before McGee could get his hands on them. He’d review them at home where he could peruse them at his leisure.

Finally, the day was over. Tony had barely made it through. He’d almost taken McGee’s head off a number of times for his teasing about the envelopes. 

Now, he arrived at his apartment. Ordering pizza, he sat down on his couch and propped his feet up on the coffee table while he pulled out the letters that had been left on his desk. He had no idea what was in these. 

Tony opened the first letter and gasped. Apparently, he’d left his mock resignation letter out on his desk. He’d been toying with resigning for a while now as he hadn’t been happy at this job for the last year or two if not longer.

Filled with dread as to what could be in the other two envelopes, Tony happily jumped up at the ring of his doorbell that signified the pizza had arrived. He paid the delivery man and grabbed a couple of beers. This would clearly need some fortification to get through whatever was happening here.

Taking a big gulp of his beer, Tony opened the next letter. It was from Gibbs. Expecting it to contain more of the same behavior Tony had experienced recently, he was shocked to see it detail out how Gibbs had felt upon his return from Mexico and almost contain an apology.

“Tony,

I have to start by explaining things. After my return from Mexico, the death of my wife and child seemed so real that it felt like a douse of cold water to return and see you so full of life and virile and attractive. I immediately started distancing myself.

I couldn’t believe that I could be so unfaithful to my wife when her death felt so recent. I didn’t know if we’d had a relationship of that nature, but I had to make sure you didn’t suspect and that you didn’t believe a romantic relationship was attainable. In the process, I helped the rest of the team disrespect you which was never my intention. 

You deserve better than the way you’ve been treated recently. I hope you will reconsider leaving and will stay and give me a chance to do better and a chance to woo you the right way.

Jethro”

Tony had taken a single bite out of his pizza. The rest hung limply from his hand as he stared at Gibbs’ letter in pure shock. There had been no apology, but with a letter like that one wasn’t needed. 

Well that wasn’t true. An apology would be nice, but the remorse Gibbs felt for the way Tony had been treated was clearly genuine. Tony wasn’t sure about the idea of dating his boss. It was true he swung both ways, but he’d never even before Mexico allowed himself to consider his boss as an option romantically.

He set the pizza down with shaking hands, beyond scared as to what the other letter might contain now. He wondered who else knew that he’d been contemplating resignation and what else might be in store for him. He took another big gulp of his beer and yet another trying to fortify himself to read the next letter.

He couldn’t have been more shocked to find the next letter was from McGee. It was true he had long thought of McGee as a little brother, but he’d expected a letter from Abby begging him not to leave or perhaps Ziva trying yet again to romance him. Maybe even a letter from Ducky or Jimmy. McGee would have been the last person he expected to respond to a resignation letter from him simply because McGee had been too caught up in his own little world recently.

“Tony,

I never told you, but I knew that you were Claire. Even then I had been serious about a romantic relationship with you. It hurt when you blew me off. 

I had trouble treating you normally, after that. I wanted you to hurt the way I’d been hurt when you turned me down. You went after me as Claire knowing full well who I was. You should have known that I could easily trace your IP and find out that Claire was you.

It gave me hope that you could return my affections, but you quickly squashed that when you blew me off. It really hurt, Tony. Still even after all these months of me being mean to you and siding with Ziva over you, you never let me down. 

Finding out that you were considering resignation shocked me into seeing how horrible my behavior really had been. It made me grow up and stop seeing just the hurt you dealt me, but also the hurt I’d dealt you. Now, I wonder if you really didn’t think I knew Claire was you and that’s why you blew me off.

Regardless, I will do better in the future and I hope you reconsider leaving. Whether you want to start a romantic relationship with me is up to you, but I haven’t stopped wanting you that way.

Tim”

At this point you could have knocked Tony over with a feather. The contrecoup blow of not one, but two romantic responses left Tony beyond confused. Hr didn’t know how to handle it. He was reeling physically and emotionally, right now.

Tim’s response made more sense to him than Gibbs had, but he didn’t feel like he was ready for a relationship with either one. Going back to work now would be even more awkward. Would Tim and Jethro, the invitation to call Gibbs by his first name still shocked Tony, start fighting over him in the bullpen? 

He really hoped not. That would take an awkward situation straight to untenable. Neither of these billets-doux had been expected. There was no way that Tony could respond to either of these letters tonight. 

His resignation, however, was definitely off the table. He would wait to see how both of these situations played out before making any decisions. For the first time in a long time, he had hope that work at least would go better.

**Author's Note:**

> Prompts are currently open. If you'd like to prompt me, please do so [here](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/NCIS_Prompts_2017/profile). Note you have to be an ao3 member to do this. 
> 
> If you are not an ao3 member, you can prompt me [here](http://cutsycat.livejournal.com/50701.html). Please follow the same rules as are listed in the above link. However, because this is a handmade prompt form(that thinks it's a poll), it is considerably more limited than what ao3 provides, so please use the ao3 form if you're an ao3 member. Please note the name option is for a name that I can say this is for so that you know it's for you. Since this is for non ao3 members it won't be true gifts, but you will be mentioned in the notes.
> 
> This is a new thing I'm trying, so please leave feedback here if you think it could be improved.


End file.
